Back to the ZAMM route

Mountain pass road, Oregon

I mounted the seat of the fully loaded bike this morning at about 10am Pacific time and headed back to Prineville to pick up where I left off a few days ago.  I need to first say that three days off the bike are hard.  I felt just like the first day again - couldn't stay of the road, found all kinds of excuses to stop (coffee, ice cream, batteries, change wires around, look at clouds, take pictures) - and in the end only made it to La Pine, OR, about 250 miles.  This was to end at Grants Pass.  But the revised start point will allow me to see Crater Lake at leisure in the morning, I understand it is a great thing to see.

What stopped me in La Pine was mother nature doing her thing.  Thunderstorm.  High winds. Hail. Not good.  First motel was a winner, and two eating places in walking distance.  I pulled in at the same time as a couple from British Columbia and they said they had gotten wet almost every day of their trip.  It was my second opportunity to get dry.  As expected, an hour after I checked in there were blue sky and sun out, but I was committed to this place.

The ride to the the rain was pretty nice.  But I also am getting overwhelmed by the trees, mountains and smells of this coast.  One can only take in so much.  The food continues to be fun - honest, organic.  Good stuff.

The tracking device is working, but there are not that many ham radio operators relaying the signal in the rural areas so you will note that it appears that I take the bird route form point to point.  One of my friends asked why I seemed to go over that same road twice.  That is because I did go over it twice in order to follow the Pirsig route as closely as possible.